I Got Away with Murder: The Untold Story of How I Shot 16 People in 2 Days

TUESDAY MAY 20, 2008

This crazy band called Foxy Shazam decided to roll into town and play at the Glass House in Pomona. I didn't really want to go because I was tired and not feeling too great, but being the Silent Assassin that I am, I am always looking to shoot people. I am in the process of collecting heads, and I thought Foxy Shazam would look nice above the mantel.

Foxy Shazam is probably one of the craziest live bands I have seen in awhile, so I knew it would be difficult. I figured I would at least shoot one of them. Little did I know I would shoot all 5 members, 2 members from The Dear Hunter and the Tour Manager for Fall of Troy. I was on a killing spree. Foxy Shazam was so stoked to be shot, they asked me to shoot some promos for them as well!

What I thought would be a bang bang and run, turned into a full on shoot. It was amazing. It was strange being at a show for the entire time and only shooting one performance. It was pretty sweet. Watch the video of Foxy Shazam, it will give you a taste of their madness!

THE DEAR HUNTER

TOUR MANAGER FOR FALL OF TROY

FOXY SHAZAM

FRIDAY MAY 23, 2008

My next night on killing was much like the first. My mission was to shoot Andy Serrao. He is the talent buyer for Chain Reaction, as well as a band manager. One of the bands he manages (Eye Alaska) was playing at Chain Reaction that night, so he had me shoot them as well. Along with their tour manager and the guy who does a lot of artwork for the band. It started to rain on us, so I had to quickly breakdown my gear before it got soaked. I ended up sticking around to shoot a few shots of Eye Alaska's set. After the show, I had the urge to shoot one more person. The lucky soul was Max Ritter, who does Music Marketing for Hurley! Thankfully it wasn't raining anymore, so I was able to shoot him in an alley. Shooting people is a tiring hobby, but so worth it.

TALENT BUYER/BAND MANAGER

EYE ALASKA

ARTIST/EMPLOYEE AT CHAIN REACTION

TOUR MANAGER/SECURITY GUARD AT CHAIN REACTION

MUSIC MARKETING AT HURLEY

Red Eyes and Ringing Ears: My Week From 5/9/08 to 5/17/08

This was a crazy week for me. A very good week, but crazy. It started on May 9th. I worked all morning at Hot Topic. It was kind of slow, so I had my friend, Charlie Pecoraro come in to pose for me. He is a musician, so I did the Faces of Music portrait of him. I took off a little early and drove out to Irvine because my band, the CIG, was playing our second to last show at Reuben's (the guitarist) house. We played for over an hour to about 15-20 people. It was a blast, of course.


I got home late, dead tired. I think I stayed up past 2am. The next day, Saturday May 10th, I went to see my friends in Scarlet Grey play at Chain Reaction. I shot photos of them as well as Burning Tree Project and Eudora. After the show, the Snider Brothers and I went across the street to an auto repair shop to setup lights to do my Faces of Music portraits. I shot both of the Snider Brothers, Josh and Jon and then Ben Grey and Danny Duran of Scarlet Grey. I then went to Wendy's with the Snider Brothers for a little late night snack and chat. I got home around 1:30am and started working on Ben's picture. I went to bed around 3am.





I woke up Sunday the 11th and went to the first service of church before heading out to Rancho Cucamonga to have Mother's Day lunch at my brother's house. From his house, I drove out to San Bernadino to shoot promos of War of Ages. I stayed until the end of the show which was close to midnight. I had setup my lights during the last couple songs of WOA and they were nice enough to all do the Faces of Music portraits for me. Even after shooting promos of them for a couple hours already. We then went to In-n-Out for some late night grubbin'. Then it was off to home, only an hour car ride away. Needless to say, I got home late again.








I had to get up early on Monday May 12th to go into work at Hot Topic. After work, I watched hockey before heading back out to Chain Reaction to see my friends in Means play. They of course headlined the show, so it was another late night. After their set, I did the Faces of Music portraits of Matt and Todd, their guitarist and bassist. I hung around for a little bit after that, but I needed sleep. I think I went to bed around 2am again.



I spent most of my day Tuesday May 13th kind of getting ready for my band's last show at Di Piazza's in Long Beach. We opened for Tipper's Gore and Social Circkle (from Boston). It was a fun show. There wasn't as many people as I thought there would be there, but it was still a good time. It was a sad thought knowing that we wouldn't be performing again. I am going to miss it. It was another late night. Tipper's Gore didn't even go on until 11:30pm. But it was well worth the lack of sleep.



I woke up early again on Wednesday May 14th to do another half-day at Hot Topic before meeting up with Damion Lloyd (a photographer I assist) to go shoot a banquet for ST Jude Hospital. The banquet seemed to go on forever. Damion and I both struggled to keep our eyes open. We got good shots non-the-less. The banquet ended well after 10pm and I still found a way to stay up well past midnight.

On Thursday May 15th, I had a full day at Hot Topic. I shot about 27 shirts and some posters. For my lunch break, I tried to take a nap in my car. Besides it being blistering hot and me feeling like I would blackout, I think I actually slept a little. I was looking forward to Thursday night because all I had was Bible study. I did almost fall asleep a couple of times, but it is always a good place to relax and focus on the Word and not on our busy schedules. Bible study ends around 9pm usually, but I again managed to stay up late.

I had to wake up extra early on Friday May 16th because I was assisting Damion with a shoot for Oakley. The call time was 7am. The plan was that I was going to work from 7am to noon with Damion and then from 1pm to 6pm at Hot Topic. Thankfully there wasn't much to do at Hot Topic, so I think I ended up leaving a little early. I spent the evening with my friends Matt, Casey and Jon. We ate at Pepe's and then chilled in the spa. Finally a restful evening! I did stay up past midnight again though.

I woke up to a knock on my door at 8am on Saturday May 17th. Matt (my roommate) and I were going to go to Steamers for breakfast. He told me they had good waffles, so I was craving them. We got there to find out they no longer make waffles, so I had to settle for a cheese bagel. It was good, but it ain't no waffles. After breakfast, I watched Dallas beat Detroit to force a game 6. Good game. Pretty much right after the game, I had to head out to Whittier. I shoot high school sports for Sanford Studios and somehow I got roped into helping out at a prom. I agreed because I was just going to assist and the dance was going to be on a boat cruising the Long Beach harbor! I had no idea how long of a day it would be. I got there at 3pm and didn't get back to the studio until midnight. It was a pretty fun gig, but I got stuck shooting candids, which gets kind of old when there are only 150 people. Never-the-less, it was a pretty easy job. So once again, it was a late night, but knowing that the following week would be a little slower brought a sigh of relief as I closed my eyes to finally get some sleep!

New Job

I recently got a new job as the photographer for ShockHound.com, which is a new division of Hot Topic. It is a legit "corporate" job. I put that in quotations because Hot Topic is far from being like a corporation. It is publically traded, that's about all that makes it a "corporation." But still, I have never worked in this type of setting, so there are still things I am getting use to. It was definitely frustrating right at first, but things seem to be falling into place and I am loving it! Basically, I am shooting product for ShockHound. Whether it is exclusive band shirts or vinyl, I am shooting it. Keep an eye out for ShockHound.com. It should be launching soon and it should be a really cool site. I am blessed to be a part of it! God truly provides.

MY NEW OFFICE

Handcuffs and Portraits

I am starting a new series of pictures I am calling for the time being, "The Faces of Music." It is basically going to be a series of portraits of musicians. My first such shoot for this was with Nik the Dick, who plays guitar in C.O.P. and drums in Bad Reaction. Two very good old school hardcore, thrash, punk bands.

I drove out to West Covina for the afternoon to hangout with Nik and takes some photos. We skated a little, ate fat burritos and took some candid photos and what not. It was all going so well until Nik recommended a spot he remembered going to back in high school. Of course, we had to hop a fence to get to the spot he was thinking about. The spot was basically a wash area in Monrovia. We were there maybe 10 minutes. We had just found this dry lake bed and I was just about to start breaking out my camera gear when I noticed someone walking out of the corner of my eye. Yep, wouldn't you know it. It was a cop. He told us to sit down and then he had Nik walk backwards to him up this loose gravel slope. I was thinking we would just be asked to leave, but then I saw them put handcuffs on Nik. Not looking good at all. Next they had me walk backwards up the loose gravel slope, put my hands behind my back and then I felt the cool steel of handcuffs. Now, I have had my fair share of police run ins, but I have never had handcuffs put on me. It is not something I want to go through again. It was not a good feeling at all. Nik had never been handcuffed either and he didn't like it much as well. The police searched my bag looking for spray paint. The report they had received was that we were tagging and then taking photos of it. It didn't take much convincing that we weren't and I even told them how to turn on my camera and look through the photos we were taking. We were still sitting on the ground, handcuffed. Not a very comfortable position to be in. They took down our names and addresses and then finally undid the handcuffs. With a stern warning, they let us on our way. They sent us out on the opposite side on the wash from my car, so we ended up having to walk all the way back around through residential streets. We finally got back to the car just in time to see the cop who busted us drive away. I was half expecting to see a ticket on my car. Thankfully, we got off with a warning, but it could have been a lot worse.


We went back to a tennis court that we had passed that I wanted to go to instead of the wash. We set up my lights, while two guys were playing tennis on the court next to us. We got a few weird looks, but soon got over it. After tweaking with the lights and settings, I finally got the photo I wanted.

NIK THE DICK

Nik actually saw the cop that busted drive by the tennis courts as we were unloading the car, haha! They were following us. We went back to Nik's where we did some shots of him playing the drums and then some in his room. I might post those later.

This is Me, I Shot Chad

I am human, yes, but I have the power to freeze time. I stop action with the flick of a finger. Trapping that moment inside a rectangle frame. Forever it will remain in its frozen state, giving people the chance to travel back in time to remember those moments that are now in the past. They will laugh, they will cry, but they will never forget that moment, thanks to my itchy index finger. I am Chad Sengstock, aka I Shot Chad, aka I Shot Photography. I shoot people, music, events, action, product, etc., etc. So stay tuned.

www.ishotphotography.com